Co-founder and chair of Specsavers, Mr Doug Perkins, has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by His Majesty King Charles in this year’s Kings Birthday Honours List.
Perkins, an optometrist, received the honour for his services to business and trade.
His wife, Specsavers co-founder, Dame Mary Perkins was the first female optometrist in the UK to receive the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2007 for services to business and the community in Guernsey.
The couple formed Specsavers in 1984. It is now the largest private eye and hearing care provider in the world.
“I can’t tell you how honoured I feel to receive this award for services to business as I have dedicated my entire career to helping people to see and hear more clearly,” Doug Perkins said.
“But more importantly, this is recognition for the 45,000 people around the world who work for Specsavers and for our ophthalmic surgery business Newmedica and their dedication to changing people’s lives through better sight and hearing.”
Doug Perkins applied an innovative approach to pricing and advertising, and a pioneering joint-venture partnership model to the optical industry. Each Specsavers business is part-owned and managed by its own directors, who are shareholders, supported by a supply chain and specialists in various support offices, providing services such as marketing, accounting and IT.
Many achievements and innovations
He has always been involved with the day-to-day running of the business and is passionate about innovation and clinical excellence. He spearheaded the rollout of OCT scanners in all Specsavers stores and continues to champion the role optometrists and audiologists play in delivering healthcare in the community
“Together, we have achieved so much since we started this business more than 40 years ago from pretty humble beginnings and it’s really quite incredible that we are now offering our services to more than 48 million people, as far afield as Canada and New Zealand, and have a robust supply chain that spans the world from the UK and Europe to Asia Pacific,” he said.
“None of that could have been achieved without loyal, hardworking, visionary colleagues and partners.
“My wife Mary and I recognised from the very beginning, when we started the business together, that we needed to surround ourselves with people with the right skills to propel us forward if we were to achieve our goals of offering value for money and experts who truly care.”
Born in Wales, in 1943, the son of a police sergeant and a farmer’s daughter, Perkins was industrious from a young age and had jobs as an errand boy, laundry delivery driver and assistant at a local chemist. He credited this experience as instilling in him the value of hard work and inspiring in him a passion for healthcare and retail.
He qualified as an optometrist from Cardiff College of Advanced Technology in 1965 where he met Ms Mary Bebbington. Together they founded Bebbington and Perkins Opticians, which they sold in 1980 before moving to the island of Guernsey to be closer to Mary’s parents, who had retired there. Perkins still goes into the Guernsey office every day and travels extensively to support business growth and the industry sector.
Doug Perkins said he was just as passionate now as he ever was about the future of optometry, ophthalmology and audiology, as well as further opportunities and expansion of the Specsavers group.
“Improving access to expert eye and hearing care for everyone, regardless of their circumstances or where they live, has been and will continue to be our driving force and I have no intention of retiring as long as I can continue to be useful to that cause,” he said.
The company was put into a family trust several years ago to ensure it would continue to operate under the Perkins stewardship and to prevent it being sold into private equity. It remains a family business, with son Mr John Perkins as CEO and four of the founders’ seven grandchildren also involved in the organisation.
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